The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1887-05-12

easy gated, SAFE and speedy.
Women In Business.
In the operating room OF the Western
Union Telegraph Company. at a dizzy
height above the roofs ard many Of the
towers Of New York. 700 men and
women, mainly between the ages Of Is
and IS. manipulate the electric ma
chimes that scatter and receive the tele-
graphic correspondence of the metrop-
oils. For several years women have
been employed side by side with men in
this great work-room, and as the sexes
have never been divided. but almost
every girl and woman has been brought
at one time and another to the side Of
almost every man. this is splendid
vantage point for studying the problem
presented by this new phase Of city life.
The questions that it was necessary
to ask ! first put to Mr.. William j.
Dealey, the manager.
HAS it been your experience" | in
quired, that ladies in business lose
their feminine ambition to marry and
keep house? Do they marry in any less
proportion in business than they do from
the homes Of the land?''
my experience" said Mr.. Dealey,
..is that ladies in business become to a
certain extent independent. consequent
ly more self-reliant, naturally more
exacting, more critical. less sentimental.
better able generally to take care of
themselves. and that their marriages
are more wisely planned and result in
greater average of happiness than if
they had less means Of observation.
My experience is that there are more
marriages between people in business In
the same Office than there would be be-
tween the same number of men and
women If not so closely associated In
business. Their judgment in the choice
Of life partners is excellent, simply be-
cause of their experience. The boys
see many kinds of girls. and the girls
an equal variety Of boys, and they learn
to compare the qualities Of those
around them"
Then business does not rob woman
of feminine qualities; she still wants
to be wife and fulfill her natural part
in life?" inquired.
Yes
..Are lady operators in this Office
robbed OF their graces and charms by
the discipline of businesso"
mo. on the contrary they add to
their charms by being constantly on
their dignity, which is necessary out
come Of discipline. Women in business
lead two lives, one business life and
the other social life. The training
Of their business life makes them prac-
teal, economical and far-seeing in
social life. The majority of them
(perhaps it may be said that all of
them) have dependents upon them at
home, and the sense OF responsibility
thus developed necessarily makes them
good housekeepers-good managers"
"You have bad a long experience
here i'm room where 200 ladies and
500 men are together every day; has it
been your experience that this contact
has ever caused any scandal or would
cause you to advise parents to keep
their daughters out of bnsiness?'
mo-" Mr.. Dealey replied: Il have
never known of anything that had the
shadow of scandal arising from any
such contract, and instead Of advising
parents not to send their daughters
to business. know of no better school
for those daughters"
Really. view Of the 700 operators
at their work was in itself an answer to
many Of the questions one desired to
ask on this subject. The girls and wo-
men were singularly feminine in all
their ways. No attempt at Identification
had been missed. They we're comedy
lot of young women, and not only were
their faces soft and plump and rosy and
their coiffures modish, but they wore all
those little destinations, in the shape of
bows and ribbons and rings and elabor-
ately draped garments, which every
properly constituted member Of the sex
SO dotes upon. Their rounded forms
gave no testimony against the health
fulness of their business. Wherever q
girl was for moment unoccupied with
business she took up knitting, embroid-
cry. crotchetting or a newspaper. It is
said that the talk of these girls among
themselves is usually practical, sensible
and upon serious topics. The most in
teresting thing observed there was the
| practical turn Of mind and the very
creditable ambition Of those little girls
called '.pick-ups," who are employed to
carry telegram hither and thither
among the operators,
When the dinner hour came some
applied themselves to practice among
the instruments and some to learning
the type-writer-all taking up one or
the other, and each expecting soon to
be earning more money. In this
model workroom every girl is addressed
as Miss and referred to as lady.
1t is strange almost to startling de-
gree how exactly this corresponds with
what was learned from women's ex-
perience in business offices as clerks,
type-writers and secretaries. Every
observation and comment upon the ex-
perience of those women was duplica-
ted in this teleglap workroom. There
seems to be no doubt that men and
women are both elevated by constant
association together, and that women
are better, mentally. at least, for wife
hood and motherhood by business train
ing as well as being better able to
select husbands when they get to know
men and can Judge Of them without